POP CULTURE COLLABORATION: MUSIC & FASHION (and FOOTBALL?)

Let’s be honest, there's a trail of failed attempts to bring together the worlds of sport, fashion and music. For those of a certain vintage, you may recall Diana Ross' failed attempt to "put her laces" through the ball at the 1994 World Cup opening ceremony or German broadcaster ZDF showcasing the fine work of Friedrich-Ernst von Garnier in 1974 - after he modernised the traditional Bundesliga kit range - via the medium of dance.

So how do we find ourselves here, in 2020, where the subjects seem more aligned than ever and a more authentic co-existence is evident across these different genres?

There are many socio-cultural factors at play here, way beyond my understanding and perhaps anyone without a Doctorate of Sociology. It's fair to say that even from a layman’s perspective, the globalisation of sport, new technologies enabling easier access to content and the emergence of star players joining the top table of celebrity culture, have influenced matters greatly.

One thread underpinning the modern collaborative experience, for the most part, has to be authentic output. Not contrived, not forced, but a symbiotic relationship.

FOOTBALL FASHIONS FOR THE MASSES

I've always loved football shirts, from designing kits on the back of the school bus to queuing outside the club shop on the release day of the latest home shirt. At the time though, we could never imagine those very kits adorning our heroes would, in fact, be fashionable for future generations.

Unquestionably the clothing scene of the '90s in North-East England was a world away from the likes of the US, with regions over there already evolving the 'Streetwear' style for decades. As the evolution continued, the 90s saw the advent of US sport franchises, planting the seed of what would prove to be their fashion legacy. Who hasn't seen a New York Yankees or Los Angeles Raiders item of clothing or baseball cap in recent times? And it's 30 years later!

The extent to which organisations from different genres, record labels, apparel brands and artists were coming together and collaborating, is what makes this period in the US truly interesting and the results still endure to this day.

It would be false to say there haven't been strong subculture fashions within the game of football. The likes of 'The Casuals' have been well documented - more recently focusing on the hooligan and ultra traits - with groups looking to move away from representing their club alliances with shirts and colours, instead shifting focus towards a recognisable appearance by adorning elements of the "mod" look and later seen in European designer brands.

For the purposes of this discussion, we're focusing more on the emergence of the traditional football shirt and club apparel moving towards off-the-field wear.

If like me you are in your 30's, seeing the jerseys from your childhood being sported by models in their 20's with brogues and dress pants can seem as if two completely different worlds have collided in a blaze of mismatching attire!

Clearly, influences have made inroads beyond the beautiful game itself. The advent of footballers becoming brands with millions of social followers, upped the ante of both style and fashion. When David Beckham hit the front pages of the English papers in 1998 for wearing an item of clothing - a sarong for those in the know - could be seen as a watershed moment.

Beckham would recount the public's reaction at the time "It was an outrage; 'why are you wearing that? What were you thinking?' Today no-one bats an eyelid if a guy wears a sarong in the street."

Whether that's true or not, you could maintain that Beckham laid the early foundations for haute couture and footballers to co-exist in the public domain.

If you want to witness the full power of aligning different cultural elements, look no further than the likes of Killa Villa, Rendezfoot or Supreme, to mention a few. Influences from different genres are brought together to create shirts that are selling for prices of $60 - $200.

Killa Villa creator, Scott McRoy, talked to me about his influences and the development of consumers' perceptions of his range "over time, I’d like to think we have evolved from 'this is a Biggie [Smalls] kit, this is a Wu [-Tang Clan] kit' to a bit more of a polished concept with a story being told through the products. Our latest ranges really reflect this, in my opinion. We are so excited to keep evolving and exploring new concepts & collaborations and hope our followers are too!"

"If you think to how Hip hop culture was embraced by American sports in the late 90s/early 00s, the continued growth of soccer in the US has allowed us to kinda bring this feel to that audience nowadays. It's worth remembering that soccer shorts are a lot more wearable as fashion items than the typical US sports jerseys"

As brands look to exploit the large-scale reach of Facebook and Instagram's storefront functionality, small to medium-sized businesses have a powerful vehicle to distribute their football fashion wear.

Scott McRoy explained how an organic post lead to the development of the Killa Villa brand - "I put a few pictures of the kit on my own Instagram account and quickly started getting messages like 'where can I buy this?', 'how can I get hold of this jersey?', it was pretty obvious from the sales and the feedback we were getting that we had really hit on something - the merging of the hip hop culture & soccer is something that gets attention and people love it!".

The differentiating technologic and fashion trends of today, opposed to a decade ago, mean that brands have the opportunity to scale to a much greater degree, at a much quicker rate.

Fast forward to the present day, where is this leading to? Resulting trends have brought a bigger audience for kit culture from international markets, seen with Nike's 2018 release of the Nigerian football collection. The hype resulted in the retro style strip being sold out in minutes upon release, with up to three million pre-orders and hundreds queueing on London's Nike store on Oxford Street, with a spectacle akin to the release of the latest Apple device.

2018 turned out to be a stellar year for football fashions, with Nike also announcing the AirJordan and Paris Saint-Germain collaboration. The deal really was a culmination of the previous decades of cross-pollination in football and fashion; a major football team, in the guise of nouveau riche French side PSG, and the truly iconic Air Jordan brand. Make no mistake about it, this was a watershed moment and a model that may well be replicated or even copied, by Nike themselves or other apparel brands looking to gain traction with a new set of fans.

The mainstay of music and football's collaboration is undoubtedly the melodies that bellow across the stadium as the teams take to the field of play ahead of kick-off. These tracks can be as synonymous as some of the clubs’ greatest players or kits - who doesn't think of Liverpool FC when hearing scouse group Gerry and the Pacemakers' sing 'You'll Never Walk Alone'?

More recently, musical tracks have been selected by clubs and associations to be played as the backing track of goal celebrations.

No question the influence of musical artists around the world in the modern era, all staking claim to their favourite football team (or multiple clubs in the case of Drake and Snoop Dogg), has swung open the doors to the wider masses.

It is telling that men's fashion & style institution, GQ Magazine, rolled out an article titled 'How to Wear a Soccer Jersey (If You Don't Know Anything About Soccer)', leading with a picture of Drake sporting a Juventus shirt.

A company that typifies the movement of collaboration across the different genres is Roc Nation. Owned by Shawn Carter, better known as Jay-Z, the 'full-service entertainment company' already boasts some of the biggest names in music on their books and have since turned their attention to the world of sports.

Recent times have seen the recruitment of stars across US sports with its sporting division Roc Nation Sports and in the last few years the launch of Roc Nation Sports International, targeting European football, with the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku, Axel Witsel and Reece James, to name a few, already signed up to the vision.

Michael Yormark, President of Roc Nation Sports International, was bullish in mapping out their vision; collective management fundamentals for both musical and sporting talent:

"Whether it’s an artist or an athlete, obviously we’re going to focus on their goals and objectives whether it’s on the field, on the pitch or on the stage, but we’re also brand-builders. One of the things that we do really well is help them develop their brand off the stage and off the field and off the pitch, which in our minds is equally important.”

Having the clout of musical talent and influence was seen recently at "From Milan with Love", a virtual live event arranged between AC Milan and Roc Nation, with several musical heavyweights performing from Roc Nation's stable of artists.

To bring the piece back full-circle, when you look at the relationship between Roc Nation and German sports apparel brand, Puma, it’s clear they fully understand the potential of cross-collaboration across music, fashion and sport. Jay-Z is a brand ambassador and has held a Creative Director position within Puma, opening the door to his behemoths of the stage and field with a number of lucrative sponsorship deals created for the Roc Nation stable.

With numerous elements that branch off and develop around the game of football, I have an immediate affinity to multiple aspects. With other features, I may not quite carry the same affiliation.

What is important is that we adapt to the trends and cultural influences that help grow the game, especially when we look at content trends.

It's clear that sport, fashion and music resonate with each other, and in some ways, all play into the tribal nature of human instinct. However I've only scratched the surface in this respect, there are many more complex perspectives to consider and analyse should we wish to delve deeper.